Read the poems at your leisure

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http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B013ZJB8BC

Sunday, April 29, 2012

PUSH PULL


Chennai Speakers Forum
Project # 6
Pull-Push

Toastmasters – We all know the story of the hare and the tortoise, don’t we? How many of you think that the moral of the story is “Slow and steady wins the race”? But what If I told you that is not the only moral of the story?Do you  know what happened after the race? Do you want to know that?[Expecting a response]

IMAGINE - you were at the finish line of that race. The hare came whooshing past, smiling  and sweating, staggering and swaggering at having surely won the race , can you imagine what would have been the look on his face when he saw the tortoise sitting there chewing green cabbage?

He was baffled, confused and thought he was having hallucinations. But after having a carrot and still seeing the tortoise patiently chewing away decided he indeed had lost.

He went up to the tortoise and with great sportsmanship said “So you have won, fair and square. Congratulations. I should not have been overconfident and should not have taken the nap. What do you think?”

The tortoise, weary after the long race, smiled feebly and said “Thank you. Yes you were over confident and should not have taken the nap. But I think there was a way we both could have won.”

The hare astonished remarked “We, both, win. Then who loses?”

By this time a small crowd had gathered around.

The cow exclaimed “Ooooooooooo... how is that possible?”
The goat said “meeeeehhhhh, Impossible”.
The donkey started laughing “ heeeee haw heee haw, The tortoise has gone mad”.

Amid this entire din, the tortoise smiled and said “We all believe a race is to be won by a single person. All the others lose. That basically is what you define as a race. You ‘PUSH’ yourself forward to be the first. But think what would have happened if the hare had taken me on his back and we both had crossed the line together, or if I had woken up the hare on seeing him sleeping? “

The crowd murmured...”Oh what a brilliant idea ... why didn’t we think of it.... the tortoise makes no sense...told you.. he is as dumb as a dormouse.” The hare was intently looking at the tortoise and trying to figure out the meaning of the words. 
He slowly nodded his head in agreement and said “Oh wise tortoise, what you say makes sense and I now see how foolish I was to ‘race’ against you. Life is a race only because people are PUSHing themselves. We never stop and see who is lagging behind and never ever try to PULL them up so that we together can enjoy the benefits.” 

The crowd was stunned; silence was reigning supreme as each one tried to figure out the implications and impact of these words. The cow stopped chewing cuds, the goat stopped braiding his “goatee” and the donkey as usual was “dumb”struck.

The tortoise with a contented smile on his face said. “In life we all have a choice, that of Push vs Pull. Performance vs Progress... Activities vs. Accomplishments. Many of us always chose the former. We always push for performing better which is why we enter into a race. All we hear is that Life is a Rat Race. No offence to you dear rat. But for how long do you run? Forever?  How many of us have ever stopped , looked back, saw people lagging behind , went back, pulled them up and progressed together towards the goal.  One complements the other , each pulls the other along . The progress may be slow, but it is a progress nonetheless. This way we all benefit and we all share our progress.

Life then would not be a race but a GRACE

With that ... the tortoise entered his shell and went to sleep.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.


And that Toastmasters is the moral of the story.


Oh ! I still have a few minutes time... Do you know what happened after the all the rats had jumped into the sea by the song of the pied piper? [No....?]   They all died....

Thank you.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Ti Amo


Ti Amo

This is a poem
Written out by me
At a time I was feeling blue
And also without a clue
As to what went wrong
Between candy and chocy
I would give a lot to know
Why everything became so rocky

You and I were different
I cannot deny you that
But the point was to make it work
Even after that.

If you were confused
Then why did not you tell
I poured my heart out to you
And now it feels like hell.

Your sorry will not help me
To forgive about those things
Those times are the ones I cherish
And the feelings that it brings




For you are the one I love
Without a tense attached
Without you I feel so lonely
Miserable and detached

You are the one and always will be
The person to whom I gave my heart
And although you may not feel the same for me
Whenever you call I will come to thee


For love need not be a 2 way street
Love doesn’t require a return
Even though we may not meet
It is a feeling that eternally burns
Within my heart.

I still don’t know what went through your mind
But you have stolen my peace of mind
Everything I see or hear reminds me
You and everything that could be


I may never know why it didn’t work out
There will always be in my mind a doubt
As to why did you do what you did
Why did you keep your confusion hid
That one mistake of yours
Had ruined my heart and mind
But at least I lived a life in which I loved
And experienced ….briefly
The Divine.

First Love


FIRST LOVE

BEFORE I GO TELLING THIS TALE
HEARKEN ME
I AM NOT ONE WHO HAD THE BLESSING OF LUCK
MY LIFE WAS ONE SORROW AND IT SUCKED

LONG HAVE I LIVED
WITHOUT HOPE OR JOY
SEEING WORLD THROUGH TEAR STAINED EYES
HIDING MY HEART FROM EVERY EYE

BUT ONE DAY CAME AS SUCH
WHEN MY HEART CHANGED SO MUCH
THE WALL OF LONELINESS WAS KNOCKED DOWN
BY A SINGLE PERSON WITH EYES BIG AND ROUND



I FELT THE WALL CRUMBLE
ALL AT ONCE
I WASN’T ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
WHAT TURNED STEEL TO SAND

MAYBE IT WAS HER EYES
BIG AND ROUND
ONE LOOK FROM IT
AND I FUMBLED

MAYBE IT WAS HER LAUGHTER
SO CLEAR AND LOUD
THAT I STOOD
RIVETTED TO THE GROUND

MAYBE IT WAS HER HEART
SO KIND AND PURE
THAT I FELT INSTANTLY
I WAS IN LOVE FOR SURE
SHE DIDN’T KNO ABT MY FEELINGS
FOR A VERY LONG TIME
AND I LOVED HER EVER MORE
AND MORE AND MORE

WE WERE GOOD FRNDS ALL THE WHILE
AT EACH OTHERS THROATS ONCE IN A WHILE
I DO NOT KNOW ABT HER
BUT I ALWAYS MELTED SEEING HER SMILE

I FOUND OUT THAT MY HEART COULD FEEL
THAT IN REAL IT WASN’T MADE OF STONE AND STEEL
BUT IT HAD SUFFERED A VERY GREAT DEAL
WHICH ONLY LOVE AND CARE COULD HEAL

AND THEN CAME THE DAY
SOME CALL IT MOLE DAY
FOR SOME ITS JUST 23RD DAY
BUT FOR ME IT WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE D-DAY
EITHER SHE GOT IT OUT OF ME
OR WHETHER I WANTED HER TO KNOW AT LAST
AT LAST, THE TRUTH WAS OUT

SHE SAID SHE LIKED ME
AND NEEDED TIME TO THINK
TO LET HER LIKENESS TURN TO LOVE
AND THUS LEFT IT AT THE BRINK

WE HAD SOME UNFORGETABLE TIMES
MOMENTS OF HAPPINESS NOW LOST IN TIME
I YEARN FOR THEM
SEEING HOW IT IS NOW

ITS BEEN A MONTH SINCE D-DAY
WE HAVE SHARED JOY AND SORROW
AND KNOW EACH OTHER WELL
AS BEST AS WE MAY


WE FIGHT AND WE CLAW
WE LAUGH AND WE SMILE
WE HUM AND WE HAW
 WE CHERISH AND WE DELIGHT
WE FREEZE AND WE THAW
FOR WE KNOW
AT END
WE LOVE AND WE LIKE
EACH OTHER

SO I STILL LOVE HER
AND ALWAYS WILL
ALWAYS

LIVING APART FROM HER IS NOW MY BIGGEST FEAR
AS I HOLD HER TOO CLOSE , TOO DEAR

Monday, April 9, 2012

My Love


Chennai Speakers Forum
CC # 5
My Love
Her blazing eyes, the stylish looks, her well toned curves, the graceful walk, I was so much in love with her. She was all that I had ever wanted. Her dark colour, set off her brilliant eyes seemed to entice me towards herself.

”Come here darling!” she seemed to be saying. I was so spellbound; my feet took decisions on their own. They moved towards her, my eyes glued on her every aspect. I admired her from top to bottom, front to back. I couldn’t see any problems. She was P E R F E C T.

As I was admiring her, I was also thinking within me “Dude, this lady is gonna cost you a lot of maintenance. “ Petrol prices being what they are, I had to agree with my inner voice.

Yes fellow Toastmasters, I was looking at my first car, my very own Skoda Fabia. A better car didn’t exist in my smitten mind. I was so elated; I didn’t catch the glimpse of pride and love in my parents’ eyes.
My parents gifted her to me for my 21st Bday and as a graduation gift. I christened her Chocolate. Why I did so is worth a story of its own J

It was but another milestone in a journey that began long ago....

I still remember, when I was a kid, i was sick quite often and due to that my mom and I had to travel to a lot of doctors, from Kolkata to Mumbai, Chennai to Delhi, who used to prescribe a lot of tests. For each of the tests, I used to throw a tantrum and demand a toy. My mom would always get it for me, and I would have to go through that horrible test with tears and terror , my mind only upon the toy I would play with when I returned home.

That went on for quite a while and I had with me a large collection of GI Joe vehicles, Shape changing aliens, awesome looking cars with imaginary superpowers and lots of missiles and nuclear bombs.

Today when I look back at them, I realise how much trouble I would have caused my parents. I did not know if they had enough resources to buy me the toy I wanted, I did not see the tears in their eyes when I was being tested. I was suffering from a very rare genetic disease, the cure for which was not yet discovered. I didn’t not care for that... I was happy with my own toys.

As i grew up, my demands also kept growing, from toys, to books, to video games, to mobile phones, to watches , to computers, to laptops and finally to Chocolate!

Where I should have been using the toys and loving my parents, I was doing it the other way round.
People were being used and objects were being loved.

Slowly, over the years I came to realise the seriousness of my conditions and the troubles my mom had to go through with me.. for me. Sometimes I can see a hint of sadness, the fleeting glimpse of pain, trial and tribulations that lay just beneath the surface recollecting the times gone by. For me that was what constituted my childhood, for me, it was normal, for her, it was a punishment .

The love my parents had and have for me cannot be measured. The toys, the education, the cars are just the tip of the iceberg, what lies beneath is truly priceless.

Toastmasters, we live in an era where everything has a price tag attached to it. Ironically, the smaller the object, the bigger the price tag!!

How many of us can put a price on our happiness ? How many of us can measure our love for a loved one?
Jewellery, cars, homes, mobiles , vacations  everything is being sold in shops. But does anyone of you know about a shop selling happiness? Love? 
None.

Yet we measure our success, our achievements and our wealth not by what we have here in our hearts but what we have in our pockets

This piece of paper can get you friends, spouses and kids, but can it get you their heart?
This piece of paper, however crushed, still finds another hand. But a heart once crushed can never be whole again.
There are some things money can buy, but  for everything else there is our Mastercard.
Use that card, not to buy yourself a Chocolate, but for bringing a smile on the lips of ur Loved Ones.

Thank you.

Long Lost Love


I loved her so much
So much I love her now
Time has been standing still
I love her very much still

We never were very close
It was an illusion I chose
above the reality of truth
it made my heart to soothe

So enamoured I am with her
So much in love
She has no idea about it though
about my feeling or my hearts throes

I call myself a fool
to love her so
And a bigger fool
To not let her go

Its hard to hear of her
as a stranger once more
Happiness and sadness exist together
I have experienced it so.

Her disarming smile,
her frowning face,
her childish tantrums,
her innocent ways
I remember them as if it was yesterday
I remember her as it if was yesterday
She is my
long lost love